Can they not just patch it up fairly quickly and get it going again due to emergency? or do they have to keep it as is to conduct a whole investigation now.
The repair will have to be performed as per manufacturer documentation by a licensed airframe mechanic and signed off by an inspector. This may or may not be a quick process depending on the severity of the damage and availability of replacement parts. The FAA generally wouldn't grant emergency exceptions to those rules, except perhaps for a ferry flight to another maintenance facility.
''The collision left the CL-415 plane with a "sizable hole in its wing," said Christopher Thomas, a spokesperson with the California state firefighting agency, Cal Fire.''
